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Mandator
The ''mandatōr'' ( el, μανδάτωρ), deriving from the Latin word for "messenger", was a subaltern official in the middle Byzantine Empire. History and functions The ''mandatores'' were a corps of messengers for special duties attached to the bureaux of all senior civil and military officials, such as the thematic '' stratēgoi'', the commanders of the '' tagmata'', the logothetes and others. They were then headed by a ''prōtomandatōr'' (πρωτομανδάτωρ, "first ''mandatōr''"), a mid-level official.. These officials must be distinguished from the honorary dignity of ''basilikos mandatōr'' (βασιλικὸς μανδάτωρ, "imperial ''mandatōr''"), which was one of the lower court titles (fourth from the bottom, between the '' vestētōr'' and the '' kandidatos'') intended for "bearded men" (i.e. non-eunuchs). According to the '' Klētorologion'' of 899, its insigne was a red wand. Together with the other lower rank classes, the ''basilikoi mandatores'' wer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tzaousios
The ''tzaousios'' ( gr, τζαούσιος) was a late Byzantine military office, whose exact functions and role are somewhat unclear.. The term is derived from the Turkish ''çavuş'', meaning "courier" or "messenger", and was in use by the Byzantines perhaps as early as the late 11th century.. In the 13th–15th centuries, it became applied to officers serving in provincial posts. A ''tzaousios'' could serve as commander of the garrison of a ''kastron'' (a fortified administrative center run by a '' kephale''), possibly combining the military and administrative roles, or as an officer to the '' megala allagia'' of the imperial field army. Most of the ''tzaousioi'' mentioned in the sources came from the Byzantine Morea, where they played an important role in provincial administration. In Macedonia and Thrace by contrast, they seem to have been limited to a purely military role within the ''megala allagia''. The variant ''megas tzaousios'' (μέγας τζαούσιος, "grand ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tagma (military)
The tagma ( el, τάγμα, ) is a military unit of battalion or regiment size, especially the elite regiments formed by Byzantine emperor Constantine V and comprising the central army of the Byzantine Empire in the 8th–11th centuries. History and role In its original sense, the term "tagma" (from the Greek τάσσειν, "to set in order") is attested from the 4th century and was used to refer to an infantry battalion of 200–400 men (also termed ''bandum'' or ''numerus'' in Latin, ''arithmos'' in Greek) in the contemporary East Roman army.Kazhdan (1991), p. 2007 In this sense, the term continues in use in the current Hellenic Armed Forces (''cf.'' Greek military ranks). Imperial guards, 8th–10th centuries In later usage, the term came to refer exclusively to the professional, standing troops, garrisoned in and around the capital of Constantinople.Bury (1911), p. 47 Most of them traced their origins to the Imperial guard units of the late antique Roman Empire. By the 7 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Basilikoi Anthropoi
The term ''basilikoi anthropoi'' ( el, βασιλικοί ἄνθρωποι, "the imperial men") appears in Byzantine documents of the 9th–10th centuries and has two distinct meanings: * as a generic term, it is used by the manuals on court ceremony like the ''Kletorologion'' of 899 to indicate the highest-ranking imperial functionaries * as a more technical term, it referred to a rather lowly class of imperial servants which possibly constituted a special military detachment. The latter group included holders of minor dignities like ''stratores'' and '' spatharokandidatoi'' and was headed by the ''protospatharios'' of the ''basilikoi anthropoi'', later (in the '' De Ceremoniis'' and the ''Escorial Taktikon'') also called the ''katepano'' of the ''basilikoi''. He was aided by a ''domestikos'' and his staff included "'' kandidatoi'' of the Hippodrome", ''basilikoi mandatores'' and '' spatharioi'', the latter of whom sometimes appear to participate in military actions, which led Nic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Georgia (country)
Georgia (, ; ) is a transcontinental country at the intersection of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is part of the Caucasus region, bounded by the Black Sea to the west, by Russia to the north and northeast, by Turkey to the southwest, by Armenia to the south, and by Azerbaijan to the southeast. The country covers an area of , and has a population of 3.7 million people. Tbilisi is its capital as well as its largest city, home to roughly a third of the Georgian population. During the classical era, several independent kingdoms became established in what is now Georgia, such as Colchis and Iberia. In the early 4th century, ethnic Georgians officially adopted Christianity, which contributed to the spiritual and political unification of the early Georgian states. In the Middle Ages, the unified Kingdom of Georgia emerged and reached its Golden Age during the reign of King David IV and Queen Tamar in the 12th and early 13th centuries. Thereafter, the kingdom d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vestetor
The , Hellenized as ( el, βεστήτωρ) was a lowly Byzantine palace position and rank. As their name suggests, the were originally officials of the imperial wardrobe ( la, vestiarium, adopted into Greek as ), and are first attested as such in the 6th century. By the 9th century, the title had also become an honorary dignity (, ) intended for "bearded men" (i.e. non-eunuchs), marked in the '' Klētorologion'' of 899 as the third-lowest of the imperial hierarchy, coming between the and the (both also classes of palace officials). Its distinctive insignia was a , a cloak fastened by a fibula brooch. According to the ''Klētorologion'', together with the , the were under the command of the court official known as the . The later '' De Ceremoniis'' of Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogennetos () indicates that they assisted the in dressing the emperor, while the chronicler Theophanes the Confessor calls them wardens of the imperial crown.. From sigillographic Sigillography, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin Language
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian region and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. Even after the fall of Western Rome, Latin remained the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when other regional vernaculars (including its own descendants, the Romance languages) supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became a dead language in the modern linguistic definition. Latin is a highly inflected language, with three distinct genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), six or seven noun cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, and vocative), five declensions, four verb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rodolphe Guilland
Rodolphe Joseph Guilland (Lons-le-Saunier, 1888 – Saint-Marcellin, Isère, 5 October 1981) was a French Byzantinist. Life Born in 1888, he completed his thesis on Nikephoros Gregoras (a biography in 1926, and his edited correspondence in 1927), and succeeded his teacher Charles Diehl in the seat of Byzantine studies at the Sorbonne in 1934, which he held until his retirement in 1958. His chief interest was in the late Byzantine period (1204–1453), particularly the Palaiologan period, and his main areas of research were the history of the Great Palace of Constantinople The Great Palace of Constantinople ( el, Μέγα Παλάτιον, ''Méga Palátion''; Latin: ''Palatium Magnum''), also known as the Sacred Palace ( el, Ἱερὸν Παλάτιον, ''Hieròn Palátion''; Latin: ''Sacrum Palatium''), was th ..., and of the offices, dignities, and administrative apparatus of the Byzantine state. Works He wrote 192 works on Byzantine subjects, spanning the years from 1921 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantinist
Byzantine studies is an interdisciplinary branch of the humanities that addresses the history, culture, demography, dress, religion/theology, art, literature/epigraphy, music, science, economy, coinage and politics of the Eastern Roman Empire. The discipline's founder in Germany is considered to be the philologist Hieronymus Wolf (1516–1580), a Renaissance Humanist. He gave the name "Byzantine" to the Eastern Roman Empire that continued after the Western Roman Empire collapsed in 476 AD. About 100 years after the final conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans, Wolf began to collect, edit, and translate the writings of Byzantine philosophers.''Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261–1557)'' |
Protospatharios
''Prōtospatharios'' ( el, πρωτοσπαθάριος) was one of the highest court dignities of the middle Byzantine period (8th to 12th centuries), awarded to senior generals and provincial governors, as well as to foreign princes. History The meaning of the title, "first '' spatharios''", indicates its original role as leader of the order (''taxis'') of the ''spatharioi'', the imperial bodyguards, was already attested in the 6th century. Probably under the Heraclians, the rank became an honorary dignity (Greek: δια βραβείου ἀξία, ''dia brabeiou axia''), and was henceforth bestowed to high-ranking theme commanders, senior court officials, and allied rulers.. The first concrete reference to a ''prōtospatharios'' occurs in the ''Chronicle'' of Theophanes the Confessor, who records "Sergios, ''prōtospatharios'' and '' stratēgos'' of Sicily" in 718. In the late 9th century, the ''prōtospatharios'' is recorded as ranking below the ''patrikios'' and above the '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kletorologion
The ''Klētorologion'' of Philotheos ( el, Κλητορολόγιον), is the longest and most important of the Byzantine lists of offices and court precedence ('' Taktika'').. It was published in September 899 during the reign of Emperor Leo VI the Wise (r. 886–912) by the otherwise unknown '' prōtospatharios'' and '' atriklinēs'' Philotheos. As ''atriklinēs'', Philotheos would have been responsible for receiving the guests for the imperial banquets (''klētοria'') and for conducting them to their proper seating places according to their place in the imperial hierarchy. In the preface to his work, he explicitly states that he compiled this treatise as a "precise exposé of the order of imperial banquets, of the name and value of each title, complied on the basis of ancient ''klētοrologia''", and recommends its adoption at the imperial table.. Sections Philotheos's work survives only as an appendix within the last chapters (52–54) of the second book of a later treatise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wand
A wand is a thin, light-weight rod that is held with one hand, and is traditionally made of wood, but may also be made of other materials, such as metal or plastic. Long versions of wands are often styled in forms of staves or sceptres, which could have large ornamentation on the top. In modern times, wands are usually associated with stage magic or supernatural magic, but there have been other uses, all stemming from the original meaning as a synonym of rod and virge. A stick that is used for reaching, pointing, drawing in the dirt, and directing other people, is one of the earliest and simplest of tools. History It is possible that wands were used by pre-historic peoples. It is mentioned that 'rods' (as well as rings) were found with Red Lady of Paviland in Britain. It is mentioned by the author in ''Gower - A Guide to Ancient and Historic Monuments on the Gower Peninsula'' that these might have been wands and are depicted as such in a reconstruction drawing of the buri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire remained the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. The terms "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" were coined after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire as the Roman Empire, and to themselves as Romans—a term which Greeks continued to use for themselves into Ottoman times. Although the Roman state continued and its traditions were maintained, modern historians prefer to differentiate the Byzantine Empire from Ancient Rome a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
